Palaniswami wins trust vote amidst chaos in Tamil Nadu assembly

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has won the trust vote in the Tamil Nadu assembly. There was complete chaos in the assembly, as several opposition legislators were demanding a secret ballot to be conducted. Somehow the proceedings went on and Edappadi K Palaniswami got the votes of 122 MLAs. As compared to this, O Panneerselvam got only 11 votes. The 88 legislators from DMK and one from IUML were evicted from the assembly since they tried to interfere with the proceedings of the assembly. The Congress members also walked out in protest.

Speaker P Dhanapal had a tough time controlling the protesting MLAs. DMK members surrounded the speaker, and took to violent protests such as throwing chairs around, turning the tables, tearing official papers, and breaking Dhanapal’s microphone. Marshals had to be called in to provide a safe passage to the Speaker. The assembly had to be adjourned twice before the trust vote could be successfully carried out. Dhanapal expressed his dismay over the violent protests by MLAs and said that his shirt was torn, which was extremely humiliating to him.

O Panneerselvam wanted the Speaker to hold the trust vote at a later date and also to opt for a secret ballot. However, the Speaker did not allow these requests and went ahead with the trust vote, which, after much chaos, was won by Palaniswami.